DirectX 12 will be unveiled by Microsoft at GDC on March 20

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DirectX is a name that is well known amongst gamers, and has been relied upon for delivering games for Windows and Xbox consoles for nearly 20 years now. But the future of Microsoft’s graphics API looked in doubt recently simply because very little has been said about it since DirextX 11 appeared back in 2009.

If you had any doubt development of DirectX is still ongoing, Microsoft has removed that today. Using the DirectX blog, the company has announced that DirectX 12 will be unveiled during GDC on March 20 in a developer session at 10am.

For game developers it’s going to be an exciting day, and gamers should take notice, too. DirectX is one of Microsoft’s better ideas, as it allowed developers to easily access the performance on offer inside all our PCs regardless of the specific hardware components they contained. And although Microsoft hasn’t said much about what to expect on March 20, the GDC session summary suggests they have been working to “bring you even closer to the metal.”

What that translates to is even lower access and therefore more performance out of the hardware we run inside our PCs, but also on mobile devices that run Windows including smartphones and tablets. Those last two have to be a core focus for DirectX 12 as mobile gaming is a fast growing market and Microsoft will be keen to claim the best mobile gaming can be found on Windows. If you need more evidence that mobile is important for DirectX 12, just notice that Qualcomm logo in the corner of the image above.